Thursday, January 11, 2007

Huskies cut down by Tree's

We have a close first half that picked up it's pace over the last few minutes. Washington is hanging in their by dominating on the offensive boards despite the fact they are only shooting 48% to Stanford's sizzling 60% from the field. Stanford holds a 38-36 lead at the half. Washington's key going into the second half is to play better defense and cool Stanford who is led by Anthony Good's 13 points. Goods came out and lit UW up bu hitting his first five shots. Washington is led by Brockman who has 10. Hawes doesn't often face someone his own size and so far, Robin Lopez is getting the better of him this evening. UW needs to find a way to turn Hawes around. This is a winnable game and UW needs to find a way to win it.

Stanford started the half out hot, but Washington led by Brockman's inside game, and Oliver's hot shooting have taken a 60-55 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the first half. Huskies are still clinging to a 4 point lead with 8:33 left 66-62. Brockman is playing like a man possessed tonigh and has 21 for the game so far. This one is going to be a barn burner over the last five minutes. The Huskies have 22 points from the bench so far tonight. Spencer just drew two quick fouls, and is going to have to sit for a bit with 4 with five minutes left in the game.

2:45 to go and UW leads 71-70, Stanford has been upping the pressure in the last minute and UW has been turning it over and not rotating the ball around the perimeter. Romar has called a timeout to calm his team down, and keep the wheels on. By the way Washington has lost 13 straight at Maples, tough place to get a win.

2:30 left and Stanford has taken the lead 72-71. Hawes is fouled qith 1:35 left and heads to the line and bricks both of them, an ugly stretch for the Dawgs. Dentmon goes coast to coast, is fouled, and hits the FT to put UW ahead 74-72 with 1:15 left. Stanford scores a two to score, Hawes is called for the foul, and leaves the game. Stanford takes a 75-74 lead. Tough play, UW had the rebound, but Brockman was stripped and the scramble ensued.

37.2 seconds left in the game and Washington has the ball. Pondexter drives and draws a foul with 29.6 left. He hits one and it is 75-75. Appleby fouls immediately for no apparent reason, and Stanford goes to the line, dumb play. Stanford converts, and leads 77-75 with 24.2 seconds left. UW throws the ball away and Stanford wins 78-77.

Tough loss and you can chalk it up to getting sloppy on the outside. Great game, tough loss, and now the Huskies are in 1-4 hole that is going to be really tough to climb out of.

Spencer Hawes was dominated tonight, the frosh still has some lessons to learn.

Other Pac Ten Action

Arizona forward Marcus Williams shrugged off his contribution after scoring a career-high 27 points in the 10th-ranked Wildcats' 83-72 victory over Oregon State on Thursday night.

Aaron Brooks finished with 16 for the Duck's who topped ASU 60-55.

WSU easily handled California 73-56. Kyle Weaver had 14 points, a career-high 10 assists and six rebounds, and No. 22 Washington State won playing as a ranked team for the first time in nearly 24 years, beating California 73-56 on Thursday night.

Coming up this weekend

Arizona and Oregon face off in the league's premier game of the week.

UCLA takes on USC at their new home arena. This should be their first sellout.

The formerly ranked Huskies take on California.

Ranked WSU takes on Stanford

Arizona State battles Oregon St in a battle of the basement.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hawes has an excellent offensive game, but he does not do a good job of defending the paint. His rebounding is lacking and as well as he moves he should eventually be a better shot blocker. The Huskies are not as quick on the perimeter as in past years and for them to improve Hawes needs to become a stronger defensive presence in the paint.

John Berkowitz said...

Hawes has a way to go till he is a complete player. He has all the tools, but let's face it he is a frosh in his first tour through probably the toughest league in the country.

Lack of speed and ballhandling on the perimeter hurt us quite a bit. Dentmon had a very nice game, but he isn't a true point man.

As far as the perimeter goes they really miss Joel Smith who would have assumed Bobby Jone's defensive role if he was healthy. No doubt about it he is a missing cog in the lineup.

This is a real young team that will only get better, but I don't think they will get better enough this season.

They really have to scramble to get a spot in the big dance which was a foregone conclusion at the start of the year.

Thanks for posting, keep coming back, we will be here.

Anonymous said...

Hawes has struggled against other big men in the Pac10, including two other freshmen. He still has a tendency to bring the ball chest high where shorter guys can knock it away. I think he would benefit immensely by a year in the weight room and another round of PAC 10 play. Apples is hot and cold from game to game, a shooters lament, but he still lacks the court speed to defend man, Goods was about 3 steps in front of him the first half. Brock must be over his injury, he played like a monster. QP and Justin played well, hopefully they are over their funk. Another winnable game that got away, sounds more and more like football. They will need to get it together quickly, preferably five games ago, but right now we don't even look like an NIT team.